Simply the best online community.

Menu

Look deeeep into their eyes… Week 15 was all about eye contact. What an enormous difference eye contact makes in a pictures emotional appeal. That pretty much wraps up the whole post. Except for we should really say more about it, or these newsletters aren’t very newsy now are they?

It seems like every week finds it’s own theme around here, and this week it’s really about a girls ability to connect to her fans with her media. When you are talking about pictures, as opposed to video- every little thing counts. The details all play into the overall mood and composition of the shot. When it comes to eye contact, nothing brings the viewer into the shot quite like it. We dare you to evaluate these pics and resist a single one of these girls.

This week, a lot differently than we usually do, we are including 5 shots here that didn’t win, but still gave stellar eye contact. We want to make a point, and this lineup of in-your-face confidence is extremely compelling. We think you’ll agree-

!5! Honorable mentions for week 15 below.

How does Lilly make such an innocent shot look so provocative? Honorable Mention ❤

How does Subbabyy get her selfies so sharp, yet she’s not looking at her screen, she’s looking into her lens? Answer? Looking at the screen in the mirror to get the perfect focus, and then looking directly into the lens before she shot. That’s our guess. What’s yours? This shot takes honorable mention ❤

Can a girl be soft, but in your face at the same time? Yep. AquaMarine94 can. Those soft eyes, and defiant jawline…This shot is gorgeous. Honorable mention ❤

OK, 5 honorable mentions was a little crazy. But, we couldn’t help it. Now lets give away some money. 🙂

ApplePi takes runner up position and wins some money for this minimalist shot below of just her lovely face. It really works well to do this sort of thing on white. White backdrops also allow you to drop the temperature dramatically in your white balance, and still have skin look accurate. Well done, ApplePi, congrats!

Schoolgirl69 came out of the studio with a shot that paid her back. To get an entire subject sharp like that, with the entire background completely blurred out equally you have to be X amount of feet away from your subject, with your lens set on X distance, multiplied and divided by aperture… etc. etc. It’s not easy. Even for pros. Then add the ‘modeled’ lighting, diffused, bounced, and strobed simultaneously where the light and shadows showcase each delicious curve. If you are paying for studio time, you should demand shots like these.. or walk away. If you are doing shoots trade for portfolio, then you should start paying that photographer, because shots like this will make you money no matter where you go. Congrats Schoolgirl69. 1st place debut!

KathrynBones ala Marylin Monroe here below wins a solid first place. Not for the dramatic lighting and angle. Not for the gorgeous desaturated red. (strengths for which she’s won in the past.) Rather this shot wins for the overall effect combined with eye contact and fingers naturally falling near vulnerable places. Without the eye contact this shot would have been voyeuristic. With it, it’s a lot hotter. She makes it look effortless, but this isn’t an accident. The art of compositional lines and confident emotional insinuation are strong in this shot. Congrats Kathryn! 1st place.